Professor Escorted off the Plane for Suspected Terrorism

[Guest]

I think I'm losing faith in the common man (or woman as the case may be).

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/05/07/professors-airplane-math-leads-flight-delay/84084914/

Recently a female passenger thought the man seated next to her was not being social enough.  Then noticed that he had curly hair, olive skin, and was writing odd things on his notepad.

It turned out that he just didn't want to be bothered because he was trying to work out some equations in preparation for a speech he was giving at his destination.  Compound that with the fact he is Italian born, not Middle Eastern.  So, there was no way for his writing to be mistaken for Arabic.

Am I cynical in believing that an average person who can't tell the difference between differential equations and Arabic should not be the people reporting a "suspected terrorist"?

 

Of course, the left chalks this up to "racial profiling".  I may be losing my faith in the media.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/05/08/3776376/math-professor-terrorism/

Oh! Wait!  I already had.  Too late.

 

[Guest LiterateParakeet]

Carb, I'm confused.  You said 

32 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

Then noticed that he had curly hair, olive skin, and was writing odd things on his notepad.

She made a judgment about him based on his curly hair, olive skin and writing something she didn't understand (math, horrors!)   She assumed he was Muslim and writing something in Arabic.  And further assumed that it must be terrorist related.  Those are some pretty big assumptions. 

I just double checked the definition of racial profiling. It is: the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense.

So how do you not see this as racial profiling?  What would you define it as?  

Edited May 9, 2016 by LiterateParakeet

[Guest]

1 hour ago, LiterateParakeet said:

So how do you not see this as racial profiling?

Actually I do.  Poorly communicated on my part.  Sorry.

I wasn't meaning to disagree with the assessment that it was in this case racial profiling.  It was.  But in this case it was mistaken since the man wasn't of Middle Eastern Origin anyway.  Beyond that, I'm tired of hearing about it as the underlying cause.  This happened simply because the accuser was an idiot.  Since we can't legislate against stupidity, we're left thinking about procedures to mitigate it.

The professor himself did not cry foul because of racial profiling.  He noted that the airline procedure which limited information gathering was the cause for the entire fiasco.  He never said anything about the woman who made the accusation.

Edited May 9, 2016 by Guest

[Guest LiterateParakeet]

Oh, thanks for clarifying. I don't blame the airline either. The woman, on the other hand . . .

[estradling75]

This is the down side of the whole See Something/Say Something program.  You get false alarms from people who don't understand what they are seeing.  This lady, as requested, reported something that to her understanding appeared wrong. Leading to a series of events that the article describes.  Had the Lady been correct she would have been labeled a hero against terrorism...  But since she was wrong.. well you have people judging her as some kind of racist.  Where as all we really know about her is she tried to do what she was asked to do.

 

 

[MrShorty]

Mathophobia to the nth degree.

[Guest]

Can people really not tell the difference between differential equations (or calculus) and Arabic?

Edited May 9, 2016 by Guest

[estradling75]

7 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

Can people really not tell the difference between differential equations (or calculus) and Arabic?

You assume that most people know what either look like...

[jerome1232]

Maybe his handwriting was bad.

Hey, calc has a lot of Greek characters, greece is on the border between Europe and the middle east.

Close enough

[Vort]

1 hour ago, Carborendum said:

The professor himself did not cry foul because of racial profiling.

No. Instead, he blamed Trump and his supporters. I am no fan of Trump and tend not to think too well of his supporters, but this professor is a fool for turning this into a political screed against those he doesn't like.

[Guest]

55 minutes ago, estradling75 said:

You assume that most people know what either look like...

Actually, you are correct.  I guess I did assume that.  Honestly, it's taking a moment to accept the fact that the average person probably doesn't know what either one looks like.

[zil]

1 minute ago, Carborendum said:

Honestly, it's taking a moment to accept the fact that the average person probably doesn't know what either one looks like.

Average American is probably more accurate, and tragic.  They are easily distinguished.  To someone whose native language uses the Latin alphabet, the math sample includes recognizable numbers, letters, punctuation, and common math symbols learned in grade school and appearing on calculators; the Arabic one doesn't (nor would most middle-eastern languages).  They could spend 5 more minutes and learn that mathematical formulas are written from left to right, and most middle-eastern languages are written from right to left - then observation as well as character recognition could help you make a better judgement.

Unfortunately, abstraction and pattern recognition appear to be lost arts, and ignorance is celebrated.

Of course, I also wonder why the professor didn't politely say something like, "I don't mean to be rude, but I have a paper to give at an economics conference when we arrive, and I really need to finish these formulas, so I'm afraid I can't engage in conversation with you."  Perhaps civility is also a lost art.

[estradling75]

13 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

Actually, you are correct.  I guess I did assume that.  Honestly, it's taking a moment to accept the fact that the average person probably doesn't know what either one looks like.

Even if the average person could tell the difference (which some might) it is also unlikely that they could tell a math equation for economics from one for calculating the amount and type of explosives needed to take out a target.  Just like even if they knew what Arabic looked like, that they could tell the difference between poetry and kill orders.

[David13]

Oh come on!. That is obviously a calculation for an arab terrorist bomb.. Even I as an Average American can see that.

He got off easy.

dc

[NightSG]

1 hour ago, estradling75 said:

You assume that most people know what either look like...

Especially people who can't tell the difference between a busy Italian and an Arab with something to hide.

[zil]

45 minutes ago, estradling75 said:

Even if the average person could tell the difference (which some might) it is also unlikely that they could tell a math equation for economics from one for calculating the amount and type of explosives needed to take out a target.  Just like even if they knew what Arabic looked like, that they could tell the difference between poetry and kill orders.

That was kinda my thought - so what if someone sitting beside you is scribbling - in any language?  And so what if they're ignoring you - maybe you're not so interesting as you think.  (Though it still would have been more polite for him to ask her to leave him be rather than just ignoring her.)

Personally, I blame the planet for hating handwriting.  I say we spend tax money to buy everyone an A5 Rhodia dot pad and a Pilot Metropolitan fountain pen (recipient can choose the nib size and color/style options - I choose the White Tiger with a fine nib).

(Yes, that's a joke. No, I really don't want to spend tax money on this, though it would be better than some things we spend tax money on.)

Edited May 9, 2016 by zil
add disclaimer for the humorless

[Guest MormonGator]

3 hours ago, estradling75 said:

This is the down side of the whole See Something/Say Something program.  You get false alarms from people who don't understand what they are seeing.  This lady, as requested, reported something that to her understanding appeared wrong. Leading to a series of events that the article describes.  Had the Lady been correct she would have been labeled a hero against terrorism...  But since she was wrong.. well you have people judging her as some kind of racist.  Where as all we really know about her is she tried to do what she was asked to do.

 

 

 100% correct. It's very easy for us to pat ourselves on the back and cry racism, bigotry and hate-but maybe this woman lost a friend/family member in 9/11.  Maybe she was from Israel when they have to deal with very politically incorrect situations on a daily basis that have life and death consequences.    

No, that doesn't make it right, but it's still something to consider. 

Edited May 9, 2016 by MormonGator

[NeuroTypical]

Arabic can be incredibly beautiful.  Were I to sit next to someone engrossed in writing in a beautiful script, my first thought wouldn't be "terrorist".

[mordorbund]

5 hours ago, Carborendum said:

Can people really not tell the difference between differential equations (or calculus) and Arabic?

 

 

He CLAIMS to be Italian, but those numerals sure don't look Roman to me!!

In fact, would one of you math people care to classify the 2.3.4 at the start?

[NightSG]

3 hours ago, zil said:

That was kinda my thought - so what if someone sitting beside you is scribbling - in any language?  And so what if they're ignoring you - maybe you're not so interesting as you think.  (Though it still would have been more polite for him to ask her to leave him be rather than just ignoring her.)

Was he even intentionally ignoring her?  I spend a fair amount of time with earbuds in when I'm not at work.  It's amusing the number of people who will stand outside my field of view and try to strike up a conversation even when I'm using the bright blue ones.  (Generally in a trusted restaurant where the waitresses know to step up to the table so I'll see them, or other mostly controlled location.)  I would imagine someone with long enough hair to hide their ears would get even more of this.

And most of the time, I'm reading something with very in-depth subject matter that I don't care to try to give a short synopsis of to every nosy busybody who has scared off all the other nosy busybodies that might care for a conversation with them.

[LeSellers]

19 minutes ago, mordorbund said:

In fact, would one of you math people care to classify the 2.3.4 at the start?

Typically, it would refer to a theorem or proof in a book (probably the fourth item in chapter 2, section 3).

Lehi

[mordorbund]

9 minutes ago, LeSellers said:

30 minutes ago, mordorbund said:

In fact, would one of you math people care to classify the 2.3.4 at the start?

Typically, it would refer to a theorem or proof in a book (probably the fourth item in chapter 2, section 3).

Lehi

 

"IV" would be Roman numerals. "fourth" is American. What kind of numeral is "4"?

[Just_A_Guy]

But was his math pure?

[Vort]

48 minutes ago, mordorbund said:

In fact, would one of you math people care to classify the 2.3.4 at the start?

You are right. Arabic, no doubt about it.

[zil]

7 minutes ago, Vort said:

You are right. Arabic, no doubt about it.

We call them that, but it's not how they're written in Arabic script: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_alphabet#Numerals

I learned the Arabic script forms when I was in high school (and have some Kuwaiti coins with these numbers on them), but I've long since forgotten and must resort to the fount of all knowledge (Wikipedia).